


Gods Wear Green and Yellow Quidditch Robes

by briangel



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, Hogwarts AU, Hufflepuff Lee Jeno, Kissing, M/M, Quidditch, Slytherin Na Jaemin, They're Both Clueless, Whipped, and lowkey dumb, nomin, ok maybe they only kiss like once but that's fine, they cute uwu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-09-12 13:25:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16873716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/briangel/pseuds/briangel
Summary: Lee Jeno, a Hufflepuff worthy of the name, has held a grudge against the infamous Slytherin, Na Jaemin, for as long as most students at Hogwarts could remember. It was all thanks to a Quidditch incident that happened 3 and a half years ago, during the first game of the season with Hufflepuff against Slytherin. Everyone thought that the grudge Jeno held would last what seemed like forever.So why did they suddenly start getting along?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how short or long this will be, or when it will be updated.
> 
> there will be swearing

Who would’ve thought that a Hufflepuff and a Slytherin could get along so well, even after hating each other for so long? Jeno is a Hufflepuff, who definitely lives up to the name. Hard working, loyal, patient - he’s a Hufflepuff Helga would be proud of. He was almost sorted into Ravenclaw, but the sorting hat found that some qualities outweighed others. Jaemin, on the other hand, is most definitely what you could call a Slytherin. Not evil as people commonly believe Slytherins are, but he has his moments. Cunning, ambitious, resourceful - qualities of a solid Slytherin, and he’s willing to do whatever he can to get his way.

When the two supposed “opposite houses” go against each other during the Quidditch season of their third year, Jaemin, the Slytherin's best beater, smokes Jeno, the Hufflepuff's best chaser, right off his broom with a bludger. Not a soft fall, let me tell you that. After that incident, Jeno started holding a grudge against the Slytherin, which most of his house thought would last throughout the rest of their years at Hogwarts. All of the encounters between the two consisted of Jeno either rolling his eyes or glaring at the Slytherin, whether it be in class or simply passing each other in the halls. It stayed that way for almost 3 years.

Now how did this seemingly everlasting grudge start to weaken?

 

“I just don’t understand why he’s still holding that grudge. I mean, it’s sorta petty if you ask me,” Jaemin said to Renjun, who had his nose buried deep in a book, trying his best to look like he didn’t hear his best friend.

“No one asked,” Renjun mumbled before giving up on ignoring Jaemin and closing his book, knowing that Jaemin would only continue to pester him. “But is it really all that much of a surprise? Also look who's talking.”

Jaemin simply looked confused after rolling his eyes at his best friend’s usual remarks. “What do you mean? It's just the sport, it's part of the game. If someone held a grudge with me every time the bludger that I hit nails them, I would have so many enemies that every corner I turn I would be getting glared at. I mean, I do tend to hit my mark a good ninety-five percent of the time.”

“Now you’re being narcissistic. I was there at the game, you know. I saw him fall from his broom after the bludger plowed right into his stomach, knocking him off. The thing is, maybe he’s irked about the fact that you never apologized, even remotely, after putting him in the infirmary for almost a week with a concussion and a broken wrist. All you did was continue the game like nothing had happened with a smirk on your face”

Jaemin bit his bottom lip and had the decency to look guilty. “Well, what was I supposed to do?”

Renjun sighed. “You could’ve visited him in the infirmary after the fact to even simply say ‘how are you feeling’, ‘are you okay’ or even ‘sorry.’”

“Well it's a bit late now, it happened almost three years ago. It's not my fault.”

Renjun gave Jaemin a look that said ‘are you kidding me?’ “Says the one who swung the beater’s bat.”

Jaemin rolled his eyes. “Let me rephrase. It's not my fault that the guy holds a grudge like a mule.”

“It may have happened a while ago, but do you really want to spend the rest of your Hogwarts’ years being glared at by the same person every day?”

The brown haired boy muttered a small “no,” and Renjun continued. “You can still apologize, even now, to try and get him to forgive you.”

“And why would I do that?” Jaemin asked, exasperated. The boy in the armchair beside him gave him a pointed look, making Jaemin rethink. “I can’t get within a five-foot radius to the guy without him glaring at me. How am I supposed to get him to forgive me?”

“Work that ‘Jaemin charm’ that you always talk about. I’m sure even _he’ll_ fall for it,” Renjun snickered before pushing himself out of the chair and walking up the stairs to the boys’ rooms.

“Wait, Renjun,” Jaemin called. “What was his name again?”

Renjun looked at one of the walls and pursed his lips like he was on _the office_. “Jeno, Jaemin. Lee Jeno.” He turned away and stalked up the rest of the stairs to their shared room, leaving Jaemin alone with his thoughts in the common room.

 

●★●

 

“C’mon Jeno, get up, we have to get a good seat in the great hall,” a voice whined in Jeno’s ear, jarring him from his sleep.

“Why do you do this to me almost every day?” Jeno grumbled. “It’s not like the whole house will simply just flock in all at once.”

“That doesn’t mean the good seats won’t be taken,” the freak of nature and enjoyer of early mornings complained.

“How do you even get up this early? It’s Friday, Chenle. Give me a break, you’ve been doing it for four days already.”

“Well it's five now, so you’re wrong,” Chenle laughed.

“It’s too early for this disrespect,” Jeno grumbled from where he had pressed his face back into the pillow.

Nevertheless, the Hufflepuff boy dragged himself out of bed and threw on his robes, before walking down the stairs to the common room where Chenle was waiting.

The two boys made their way down to the great hall for breakfast, through the winding halls of moving staircases, occasionally stopping to greet a picture or two. As soon as they passed through the doors, Chenle sped up while along the far side of the table, peering across the hall as if looking for someone.

“Chenle, the Gryffindors are on the other side of the hall, you won’t be able to see him for long anyway, don’t even bother,” Jeno said, catching onto what the younger was doing.

“Just for a bit is better than nothing,” Chenle countered. “Besides, it’s not like he knows who I am, and I would be surprised if he even knows about my existence.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it child. I mean, the whole entire hall can hear those high frequencies that come out of your mouth whenever you laugh. Which is, a lot, might I add,” Jeno said with a small chuckle.

Chenle shot him the stink eye before sitting down in line with the young Gryffindor. The Hufflepuff was about to take a seat beside him when he noticed a certain Slytherin sitting not to far off from his line of sight. _Jaemin_. Looking away quickly, Jeno shook Chenle’s shoulder to get his attention. “Yah, yah, we should sit somewhere else.”

Keeping his gaze on the blond boy across the great hall, Chenle waved him off nonchalantly. “Why? I like this spot. You can go sit somewhere else if you want though.”

Jeno gave him an irritated huff, dropping his voice so only the short blond boy could hear. “Jaemin is sitting right there, and I do not want to look at his face this early, let alone the whole time I eat breakfast.” Jeno didn't particularly like Jaemin, but as much as he didn't want to look at the latter, he had to admit that Jaemin _was_ good-looking.

Chenle finally looked up at Jeno, his eyes flicking to the ‘annoying Slytherin’ then up at his face. “You’ll either sit beside me, or you will end up sitting with your brother while he gives Eunwoo goo-goo eyes at the Ravenclaw table, ignoring you. I suggest you choose wisely.”

Jeno glared at the boy, rolling his tongue across his cheek. Moonbin - his brother - looking at his boyfriend with heart eyes most of the time, or Chenle, giving his crush heart eyes while the latter remains oblivious? Sighing in defeat, Jeno walked around Chenle and sat as far away as possible from Jaemin.

 

●★●

  
Jaemin noticed this, of course. The same Hufflepuff boy that had been avoiding him for years on end now saw him in the great hall and tried to avoid him. _Again._ Jaemin was getting sick of being avoided like the plague for so long. It had started to make him feel unwanted, in addition to the Slytherin burden. Over the years, the discrimination between houses had gotten better, and there were more and more diverse friend groups popping up, overall making the school more accepting. He still felt as though Slytherin’s got the most shit out of the four houses, and Jaemin absolutely hated it when people talked shit about his house. So he came up with a plan; he was going to confront Jeno later on that day about his grudge.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaemin attempts--many times-- to confront Jeno about his grudge that the Hufflepuff holds against him
> 
> Jeno avoids Jaemin many times, trying not to avoid the younger, but to avoid confrontation

Jeno wasn't in the best mood to start off his day; listening to Chenle squeal about “Jisung this! Jisung that!” got tiring after the first 15 minutes into breakfast, not to mention Chenle refusing to move further away from where Jaemin was sitting at the Slytherin table.

It was after lunch after their first class in the afternoon had ended, and Jeno was on his way to his next class when he caught sight of Jaemin walking through the hallway coming from the opposite direction. He tried to avoid eye contact by looking down at the floor, following his feet along the hallway. It didn't work so well when he was forced to come to a stop when a foreign looking pair of shoes stopped right in front of him. Jeno tried to sidestep the stranger without looking up and was surprised when the stranger mirrored his movements and blocked his way once more.

Slightly annoyed at that point, Jeno finally decided to look up, only to be met with the eyes of none other than Na Jaemin.

Instinctively, Jeno narrowed his eyes at the Slytherin blocking his way. “What do _you_ want?” Jeno spat.

“I want to talk to you,” Jaemin said. When Jeno made a face that said ‘but we are talking,’ Jaemin tilted his head and said, “Civilly, without glaring the whole time.”

Jeno rolled his eyes at that but complied nonetheless. “Class is going to start soon, and I don't want to be late, so this better not take too long.”

In turn, Jaemin rolled his eyes at Jeno. “Oh, such a goody-two-shoes. Lighten up, missing the first ten minutes won't kill you.”

“It's more the teacher killing me when I arrive late that I'm more worried about. I have charms next.” Jeno made a move to go around Jaemin but said boy moved in front of him once more.

“It'll be fine, trust me. Just say that you fell or weren't feeling well or something,” Jaemin said, trying to convince Jeno to stay and hear him out.

“Trust _you_?” Jeno snorted.

“You'll only lose like 25 points at most anyway,” Jaemin continued, ignoring what Jeno had said. When Jeno didn't look too convinced, Jaemin desperately said, “C’mon, please? If you listen now, you won't have to later. I promise it'll be quick.”

“Not now, try again later when I won’t be late to class please,” Jeno snapped.

This took Jaemin by surprise. As he stood there in the hallway frozen, Jeno took it as his opportunity to walk around Jaemin and continue on to his next class. Before he turned the corner, Jeno looked back where Jaemin was standing to see him staring back at his retreating figure. He felt the weight of the guilt for basically telling Jaemin to fuck off settle in a pit at the bottom of his stomach. He felt bad, but he could always fix it later. Jeno was a prefect for Hufflepuff, and he preferred to not be the one losing their house points.

 

●★●

 

“I don't get it, Renjun, why does he hate me _so damn much_?” Jaemin asked his best friend, exasperated.

“Don't ask me, ask Jeno. I'm not a mind reader; you know occlumency isn't my strongest subject,” Renjun replied. “He is a prefect, though. I wouldn't want to lose my house points for something as trivial as being late either.”

“Yea, I get that, but can't the guy lighten up a bit? I'm trying my best here, but he's just making life more difficult for both of us.”

“Try doing it right before or after breakfast, then. Maybe after last class? Sometime where he can't worm out of your conversation by being late for class,” Renjun suggested.

Jaemin thought for a minute before answering with a snap of his fingers. “Nah, he's making my life difficult, so I'm gonna make him regret not just talking to me the first time.”

“Careful Jaemin, your Slytherin is showing,” Renjun muttered, burying his nose back in his book. And thus began Jaemin’s many attempts of getting Jeno to talk to him.

 

●★●

 

Attempt 1 

The next morning right after breakfast, Jaemin stopped Jeno in the hall once more. “If you simply hear me out now, we won't have to do this later,” Jaemin said to the annoyed boy.

Jeno rolled his eyes at the boy’s claim. “Well, then we can do this later. I have to sort something out for my house. Could you move aside, please? Thanks.”

He walked past the flabbergasted Slytherin towards the kitchen, and Jaemin simply watched the Hufflepuff boy go past, making no move to stop him. “Well that didn’t work,” Jaemin mumbled to himself.

 

Attempt 2 

Jaemin’s second attempt wasn’t exactly successful either. He tried stopping the Hufflepuff after dinner this time, spreading his arms out and blocking Jeno’s path. Jeno looked at the younger boy, clearly annoyed. “What do you want?”

“What else? I want to talk to you. Solve our whole grudge thing,” Jaemin said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Jeno didn’t look impressed.

“Well, it can be solved later. I have to study for a test that I have tomorrow morning. Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Jeno said as he stepped around the Slytherin, whose arms had dropped in shock. Jaemin sighed and dropped his head back in frustration of having to confront Jeno _again_. He reoriented himself and looked back down from the ceiling to see Donghyuck, his other best friend, laughing at his failed attempt of getting Jeno to talk to him.

“Wow, I never thought I’d see the day where the great Na Jaemin got rejected,” Donghyuck snickered.

“Shut it, Hyuckie. Go annoy Mark or something,” Jaemin muttered, turning away from the Gryffindor and walking the opposite direction.

 

Attempt 3  

The third time Jaemin tried, Jeno was walking with his nose stuck in a book. He stepped in front of Jeno, looking down at the slightly shorter boy as he kept walking, unaware of Jaemin’s presence until he bumped into his chest. The Slytherin went from seeing a head of hazelnut hair to a pair of sharp and glaring eyes in 0.1 seconds. Jaemin smiled brightly at the ever-so-pissed Hufflepuff, not even receiving a blink in return.

“For a Hufflepuff, you sure do glare a lot. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile in my direction,” Jaemin commented.

“Maybe if you gave me a reason to smile at you, I would. Now, what do you want?” Jeno said, making Jaemin’s smile drop slightly.

“My motives haven’t changed Jeno, I just want to talk to you,” Jaemin said, desperation creeping into his voice, much to his own dismay.

“You really aren’t that great at catching me at a good time, Jaemin. I’m a busy person, and I don’t have time right now. So, bye,” Jeno said as he walked past a dejected Jaemin once again.

Without turning or moving from his spot, Jaemin said, “I don’t want to hear it, Renjun.” stopping said boy in his tracks. Renjun shut his mouth as he was about to speak, and slowly backed away from the frustrated Slytherin, not wanting to feel his wrath.

 

Attempt 4 

“Fourth time’s a charm,” Jaemin mumbled to himself as he saw Jeno approaching in the hallway. He stepped out intercepting Jeno, and the boy was reading a book - or so he thought.

Before Jaemin could barely even open his mouth, Jeno stepped around him and said, “Nope.”

“Love that,” Jaemin said to himself as he plastered a smile that said ‘I wanna die’ on his face and looked blankly at the floor. “Fuck my life,” he said as he stuck his arm out straight and turned his fist in a fake whip. He then nae-nae'd, not caring about the strange looks he was receiving from the other students in the hallway.

 

Attempt 5 

Turns out that fifth time’s a charm, not the third time. It took five tries for Jaemin to finally convince Jeno to talk to him. Contrary to what the Hufflepuff had said before, Jaemin ended up stopping him between classes at the end of the day. Jaemin had forgotten something in his trunk and had to go back to get it before class, when on his way back he came across Jeno who was walking to potions, which was in the dungeons, much like the Slytherin dormitories.

“Jeno!” Jaemin called out, holding his retrieved pen in one hand and his books in the other. The Hufflepuff turned at the sound of his name being called, expression morphing from confusion to annoyance as soon as he saw who the voice belonged to.

Rolling his eyes, Jeno turned back around and continued along the path to his class. “Hey, wait up!” Jaemin called out again. “I need to talk to you, and for once, can you please just _listen_ to me at least? I’m gonna come to you again later if you don’t listen now, and trust me, I don’t want that any more than you do.”

Jeno contemplated whether or not to listen to the pink-haired boy, but decided that it would be better to not have to see him again later on that day. Jaemin’s persistence was getting on his nerves. “Fine,” he grumbled. Jaemin smiled, and Jeno couldn't help but think how nice his smile was.

“Okay, I know you don't want to talk to me, so you don't have to. Just listen to me,” Jaemin said. When Jeno simply stared back with a blank look, he continued. “I know it's been three and a half years now, since we're in our sixth year and it happened in our third, but I'm really sorry for hitting you with that bludger.”

“Its fine, that's just part of the game,” Jeno said coolly.

Jaemin furrowed his brows slightly in confusion, “Then why do you hate me so much? I mean, it's pretty hard _not_ to notice.”

Jeno shrugged. “I guess that I was just embarrassed. At the time, it was my first time being on the Quidditch team, my first time playing an actual game. When you knocked me off my broom and I broke my wrist, it's needless to say that I was pretty mad at the time, mostly fueled by embarrassment. It didn't really help that you didn't even come by the hospital wing or do anything to apologize.”

Jaemin winced at Jeno’s words. “I realize that now, that I should've apologized at the time, and I shouldn't have kept on going like nothing had happened. I mean, it was my second year playing so I should've known better, but you know how the whole ‘Proud Slytherin’ thing is. I was proud of myself for doing a good job and helping my team, so I got caught up in the game and didn't apologize then, but I am now. So, I'm really hoping that you can stop glaring at me whenever you see me around the castle, and - I'm not even asking for a smile here - maybe just like a nod or something? Like, to acknowledge my presence? And just not be mad at me anymore?”

To say the least, Jeno was shocked. He didn't really expect for Na Jaemin to be this… _nice_. Jeno had mostly gotten over his grudge against Jaemin a while ago, but there was the fact that Jaemin hadn't made any effort at all to apologize, and that irked Jeno. Blame the Huffie in him, but he couldn't help it.

“Yea… I suppose I could do that. Maybe someday we'll make it to the smiling - but not yet,” Jeno said. At that, Jaemin visibly brightened and straightened up with a smile.

“Oh thank god, I was so scared that you'd say no and then this would be so much _worse_ to deal with because I already struggled with this so much, and I would've been so stressed, and I'm just-” Jaemin rambled before cutting himself off.

“Sorry, I'm just glad that you aren't completely pissed anymore. I'm gonna go to class now, might as well not be too late. See you around, Jeno!” Jaemin called over his shoulder with a wave and a smile stretching across his face as he walked towards Ms. McGonagall’s room.

Jeno gave a tight-lipped smile and a small wave in return before realizing where the younger was going. Checking his watch, Jeno realized that he was indeed, 10 minutes late to class. He held back his laughter as he thought about how Jaemin would possibly get yelled at for being late. Jaemin’s misfortune was Jeno’s entertainment.

By the time that Jeno made it to the dungeon for potions, he was almost 20 minutes late. In result, he lost 30 points for his house. He was going to have to call bullshit on Jaemin’s claim of only losing 25 points ' _at most'_ later.

 

●★●

 

Jaemin walked into class 12 minutes late. He tried his best to sneak in, but having been in Hogwarts for the past 6 years, Jaemin should've known that his efforts were futile.

As he attempted to sneak in, from the front of the class Ms. McGonagall caught sight of him in the back. Curse his bright pink hair.

“Mr. Na, I can see you back there. Don't even bother trying to hide.”

Jaemin stood up from his crouched position, a sheepish smile on his face. “Sorry, Ms. McGonagall.”

“20 points from Slytherin. Come see me after class for being late.”

“Yes, Ms. McGonagall,” Jaemin sighed as he took his seat. He pulled out his books as Ms. McGonagall resumed what she had been teaching the class.

“Today, we will be continuing on the transformation of an animate object to an inanimate object, vanishing said object, then conjuring back the original object,” she said as Jaemin pulled out his pen and began taking notes - quills were overrated.

 

Soon enough class ended, and the pink-haired Slytherin walked over to Ms. McGonagall’s desk at the front of the room as the rest of the students filed out of the classroom. “You wanted to see me, professor?” Jaemin said as he approached the desk.

“Ah yes, Mr. Na. I was wondering why you came in late. I had no prior notice from any of the teachers as to why, and you were not in the hospital wing or anything of the sort,” Ms. McGonagall explained.

“Oh, uh, well, I was talking to Lee Jeno for a bit between classes, trying to resolve something, and it just took longer than expected. Sorry for disturbing the class, professor.”

Jaemin looked at the floor as he said this, missing the quick flicker of surprise that showed across Ms. McGonagall’s face at his statement. “You were talking to Lee Jeno, you said?” she asked, Jaemin’s head snapping up at the question.

“Uh, yes, that's right, professor,” he muttered, slightly confused. Was it really such a big deal?

Ms. McGonagall seemed to be over her initial shock as she folded her hands and said, “Very well. I hope you resolved your issue with Mr. Lee. You are dismissed.”

“Yes, have a good day, professor.” Jaemin walked out of the class with confusion written all over his face. Was their ‘little’ feud or grudge - whatever you wanted to call it, Jaemin didn't care - really that mind-boggling for them to get over? Jaemin could be petty, but holding a grudge like that against the same person for so long was pushing it. The Slytherin was going to have to ask Jeno about whether or not he was interrogated later.

 

As Jaemin was walking down towards the Slytherin dormitories, he felt an arm being slung around his shoulders. He turned his head and was met with a grinning Yuta, the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team. “Hey, Jaem,” he greeted. “How you doin’?”

Jaemin shrugged his shoulders to the best of his abilities with Yuta’s arm still resting there. “Pretty good, actually. I finally managed to convince Jeno to stop glaring at me whenever he sees me, so I’m pretty happy about that. How are you and Sicheng?”

A faint blush tainted the captain’s cheeks at the mention of the Ravenclaw. “I would say pretty good. I mean, I finally asked him out on a date to Hogsmeade, and he actually said yes.”

Jaemin stopped walking and turned to face the Japanese boy. “Oh my god, really?! I’m so proud of you for finally gathering your inner confident gay and asking him out! I gotta collect my ten dollars from Hyuck later,” Jaemin exclaimed, mumbling the last part.

In his happiness, Yuta didn’t hear the last part of what the pink-haired had said. “I know right? I’m so excited for next Saturday!” Yuta pulled his hands away from his face and faced Jaemin as he suddenly realized something. “Don't change the subject. You said that you talked to Jeno? And managed to convince him to stop glaring at you? How? And when?”

Jaemin looked down at the floor with wide eyes, unmoving at the sudden barrage of questions. He had told the captain about how he was trying to get rid of the grudge between him and Jeno, even so, Yuta was very surprised nonetheless. Scuffing his shoe on the floor he spoke, “Well, he was heading to potions and I forgot something in my trunk so I came back to get it and I ran into him in the hallway and explained what happened,” he said, recounting the story.

“And he actually agreed, which was surprising but in a good way. Then, since I arrived late to Transfiguration, Ms. McGonagall asked me about it after class, and she was actually pretty surprised as well. I guess today is just full of surprises,” Jaemin muttered.

“Damn,” Yuta whispered. “That’s wild. We should just chill in the common room until dinner for now, though. You comin’?”

Jaemin smiled. “Yea, I’m coming.”

●★●

 

Jeno was in fact _not_ interrogated by the potions teacher, but rather received many strange looks from his classmates as he entered the class 20 minutes late then getting called out by the teacher. He was also shot a few glares from a few of the other Hufflepuffs in the class. The rest of class passed without mishaps, Jeno not wanting to make any mistakes, especially after arriving so late.

Jeno happened to have potions with the Gryffindors. He sat with a boy named Donghyuck and Jisung, as the fifth year jumped a year in potions as of how he was excelling in the class. Chenle would be extremely jealous, but Jeno hadn’t told the younger about him having potions with Jisung to avoid being intensely questioned by the enamoured boy.

When he took his seat between the two boys bearing red ties, Donghyuck immediately leaned in. “So, Jeno,” he whispered, raising his eyebrows. “Why is Mr. Prefect so late to class for once?”

With his arms crossed and resting on the table, Jisung leaned in as well to partake in the interrogation. “Yea, Jeno. You’re never late to class. What’s so special about today?”

Lowering his head to lean over his potions textbook to not get caught by the teacher, Jeno rolled his eyes. “I got stopped by Jaemin again in the hall earlier,” Jeno said quietly, missing the way that Donghyuck and Jisung looked at each other. “He asked the same thing again, but I was starting to get really annoyed by constantly running into him in the halls, so I decided to hear him out this time, and it took longer than anticipated.”

“And?” Donghyuck prodded. “That can’t be all.”

Jeno sighed. Donghyuck always knew when Jeno wasn’t giving all information that he considered vital. “He asked me why I ‘hate him’ so much, so I just said that it was fueled by embarrassment and then eventually he made me promise to not glare at him whenever I see him.”

“And that worked?” Jisung asked, bewildered.

“Well, yea.” Jeno looked back up at the blackboard to check what the teacher had written down and started to copy it down in his notebook.

“Damn,” Donghyuck whispered.

“Is there a problem back there, boys?” the teacher called, making Donghyuck and Jisung return to their own notebooks.

“No, ma’am,” they chorused.

“That’s what I thought,” she said as she turned back to the board.

“Dang, Ms. Delarosa has great ears,” Jisung commented, as they were sitting near the back of the class.

Other than that, they received no more negative attention from Ms. Delarosa and the rest of class passed smoothly. The three of them lest the class together, walking towards the Great Hall before they went their separate ways until dinner, the brown-haired (which was coloured very similarly to his own) and blond-haired boys walking towards the Gryffindor tower as Jeno made his way to the kitchen.

 

After entering the series of knocks on the barrels, Jeno dropped all his stuff from potions onto the table in the middle of the room before flopping down on one of the plush yellow armchairs. The tree growing out of the side of the common room’s branches rose out above the armchair that he was seated on, its green leaves giving a cool and calming feel to the room. Jeno sighed and dragged a hand down his face, ignoring everyone else in the common room. The day had tired him out, and he was truly at his limits.

Part of the reason why Jeno always glared at Jaemin and held that supposed ‘grudge’ was mostly because of how he didn’t know how else to act around the pink-haired Slytherin. Truth be told, Jeno hadn’t hated the other for a good 2 and a half years. In the beginning, of course, Jeno had some negative feelings towards the beater, but that wore off soon enough--he started to realize how nice Jaemin was towards others, and how _beautiful_ the boy was. He came to the conclusion that he was bi during the summer between their 3rd and 4th year after brushing off his rising feelings for half a year.

The only way he could conceal his feelings for the younger was through glares and dirty looks every time he saw him. He knew that the younger probably didn’t even know his name anymore, just passing him off as another student. Jeno knew, but he didn’t care. Now, all of that had changed. Jaemin suddenly started popping up in front of him and trying to talk to him, and the reason for him brushing the Slytherin off was mostly due to his nervousness in facing the latter. The younger’s smile made his knees weak, and his laugh was one of the best things that Jeno had ever heard, even if it had never been directed at him. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the recent development yet, but he was going to have to decide fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was so high-key picturing Jeno with his blond hair from We Young era during the second half of this chapter ngl skhsdjsk
> 
> my chapters will probably not be this long very often yeet
> 
> thanks for reading
> 
> follow me on wattpad @ briangel_/hyunshine


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaemin comes to terms with his growing affections for a certain Hufflepuff
> 
> or
> 
> Chenle and Renjun being the Devils that they are

Jaemin felt relieved to the point where it felt as though he had just aced an exam he thought he would fail. In a way, the situation was very similar. Jaemin made his way to the Great Hall for dinner accompanied by Renjun as they talked about the day’s events.

“Hold the fuck up. So you're telling me, that you _actually_ listened to something that I told you to do for once? And it worked, in your favour no less? See, this is why you should listen to me more often,” Renjun said after Jaemin recounted his story about Jeno, _again._ “Speak of the devil,” he said, nudging Jaemin’s shoulder.

“Renjun, that's you,” Jaemin joked before turning and following the black-haired’s gaze (his hair used to be blondish, but when Donghyuck came to school with almost the same colour, Renjun changed it back to black as soon as possible). His eyes landed on today’s hottest topic; Jeno. The Hufflepuff was emerging from the kitchens and was walking towards the huge doors. Suddenly, he turned around and made eye contact with the surprised Slytherin. Hesitantly, Jeno gave him a small nod - he may not have smiled, but he didn't glare either. That was a win for Jaemin.

“Holy shit, you weren't lying,” Renjun whispered, earning himself a light slap on the arm from his best friend.

“Of course I wasn't lying. Why would I?” Jaemin replied.

“I don't know, it's just shocking that he actually _didn't glare at you_ for once.”

Jaemin looked down at Renjun. “I know right, it was super weird not having him glare at me - in a good way, of course.”

Renjun snapped his fingers, and it was as if a lightbulb went off over his head. “I have an idea.”

At the words, Jaemin groaned. Most of Renjun’s ideas resulted in injury. “Regardless of what you say, I am not jumping down a flight of stairs again.”

Renjun snickered as he thought back to a couple of years ago. “I still can't believe you actually agreed to that.”

“You threatened to snap my broom over your knee!”

Renjun waved him off. “Do you really think that I would actually follow through with something to that extent?”

“Yes! I do!” Jaemin exclaimed.

Renjun smiled a bit at that. “Oh, well I wouldn't. But that's beside the point. This idea will not end in injury.”

“That's what you always say,” Jaemin muttered under his breath. “Fine then. Let's hear it.”

“It’s really simple actually. Just something to get Jeno to have be around you for as long as possible. We just have to hope that he sits facing the Slytherin table. If he does, then we try and sit facing the Hufflepuff table, directly across from him so that he will constantly end up looking your way,” Renjun explained.

“And why would I want that?” Jaemin asked.

Renjun looked at him and sighed. “I guess you did it subconsciously then. Even worse. Or would that be better?” he wondered aloud.

“Did what subconsciously?” Jaemin stood there confused. Renjun kept on walking, and Jaemin ran to catch up. “Wait, what did I do?”

Reaching the doors, Renjun stopped and turned to look at the pink-haired. “While you were telling me all about how Jeno kept on rejecting you, then how he finally listened, you called him ‘cute’ or ‘handsome’ on,” Renjun paused and started counting something on his fingers. Stopping at eight, he held up his hands. “Eight different occasions throughout your five attempts. At least two of the times were today, one being about 10 minutes ago.”

“N-no, I didn't,” Jaemin stuttered. Even with his denial, Jaemin  _did_ have to agree that Jeno was good-looking, and it wasn't helping about how he thought back to how  _good_ Jeno looked dressed in his yellow Quidditch robes. Heat flared up to his cheeks at the memory of the Hufflepuff chaser. Jaemin never thought about it before when he played the boy in the past, but recalling it now, he was well aware of the visuals that the other sported (and how they never failed to remind him of a Greek god nowadays).

At the rush of colour, Renjun pointed to his cheeks. “Told you. You may lie, but I don't, and neither do your cheeks.” With that, Renjun walked into the Great Hall, leaving Jaemin frozen by the doors. Rooted to the spot, he followed his best friend with his eyes. Renjun walked over to their house table, smiling as he approached an empty spot that was big enough for the two to sit. Looking across, Jaemin’s eyes fell upon Jeno, who was almost directly in line with Renjun. Jeno was, in fact, facing the Slytherin table, disheartening Jaemin as he trudged over to where his best friend was sitting.

“I fucking hate you,” Jaemin hissed as he sat down.

“Love you too. It’s in my best interest to help you.”

“Since when?”

"Since you started drooling over Jeno, that's when."

Jaemin speared a few pieces of chicken with his fork, transferring them to his plate. Chewing on a piece, he picked up his cup of pumpkin juice. He tilted his head back as he emptied his glass, and made the mistake of looking down past the rim. He caught sight of Jeno who was looking very much at him as he downed his drink. Taken off guard, Jaemin choked a bit, having not fully swallowed his juice. He started coughing violently, doing a great impression of a tomato as he pounded on his chest.

Renjun slapped his back ‘helping’ him. “Woah, you good there?” Curious, he scanned the people close to them at the neighbouring table. Renjun found the source to Jaemin’s problem staring back at them from the Hufflepuff table. Catching Jeno’s eye, Renjun smirked (what he hoped looked) knowingly. What he knew, Renjun didn't even quite know himself, but Jeno seemed to think otherwise as he turned into a cherry and looked down at his food.

Renjun knew that there was a reason for Jeno to be acting like that, and he was forming more suspicions the longer they sat in the Great Hall. He munched on a sugar cookie from the small platter on the table, coming to a conclusion. Jaemin had been relatively quiet since the beginning of the meal, only occasionally speaking to Renjun and Hyunjin, one of their roommates. Thinking about it more, it seemed less and less likely for someone, let alone a Hufflepuff, to hold such a petty grudge for so long. Renjun knew that Jaemin wouldn't know that, the guy was oblivious to most things regarding romance, despite the fact that the Slytherin was a born flirt. He only realized that Hyunjin was going out with Seungmin, a Ravenclaw, two months after they had started dating - Hyunjin had accidentally come back wearing his boyfriend's blue tie.

Based on the way that Jeno turned as red as a firetruck after _Renjun_ caught him staring, not Jaemin, he guessed that the Hufflepuff’s feelings towards the other boy weren't as hostile as they thought. He was probably _trying_ to make the Slytherin flustered. In fact, he was probably using those ‘hostile’ actions to cover up how he truly felt towards everyone's favourite beater.

When Renjun explained his theory to Jaemin back in the Slytherin dormitories, the only thing that Jaemin gave in return was a claim of bullshit on the whole thing. “Why would Jeno _like_ me? The guy's hated me for years,” Jaemin countered.

“Why wouldn't he like you? Most people do. You always claim that ‘no one can withstand the _Jaemin charm_.’ Besides, don't you think that it's a bit ridiculous to hold a grudge for _that long_?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Exactly, Jaemin. The guy doesn't hate you, he _likes_ you.”

“No, Renjun, I'm pretty fucking sure that he doesn't,” Jaemin said adamantly. “It just doesn't make sense. He's shown no sign of liking me for the past three years, so I don't see why he would suddenly show any.”

Renjun groaned and ran his hands down his face. “If your emotional awareness wasn't so constipated, maybe you would've noticed by now.”

“I'm saying that you're wrong, Renjun, and that Jeno. Doesn't. Like. Me,” Jaemin said, emphasizing his last words.

“I could literally ask _Mark_ , and he would agree with me.”

“That's not true, and you know it.”

“No, based on what I've seen and witnessed first hand, it is. Why are you so adamant about denying that Jeno likes you?” Renjun asked. When he received no response, he prodded further. “Do you really hate the prospect of him liking you that much? Or is it that you don't hate it at all?”

The more Renjun pressed, the closer Jaemin knew he was to telling his best friend about the way Jeno affected him. Over his various attempts to talk to Jeno, Jaemin had to keep an eye out for the boy to see when the best time to interrogate him was. What he didn't expect was to get his interest caught with how whenever Jeno smiled and laughed with his friends his eyes turned into the most adorable crescents, the sound of his laugh and how he threw his head back, the way he became all flustered when receiving compliments from others, the way that his hair fell over his face and the way that despite being allergic, he owned a cat and held an endearing love for the furry animals. The small things that the Jeno did that Jaemin had eventually started to notice and constantly got on his nerves - but in the best way possible. He started having an unwanted growing sense of affection for Jeno constantly swelling in his chest, like a balloon of emotion that just wouldn't stop getting pumped until it filled all of the available space then exploded. When Jaemin saw him around the castle, that balloon would expand in size, sometimes so large that it would press against his ribcage, making it hard for him to breathe. If the affection that he was starting to feel for Jeno was returned, Jaemin didn't know if he would be able to hold himself back.

Jaemin came to the conclusion that he was gay during his 4th year, never really having a piqued interest in girls, it always being the guys that caught his eye. Luckily his family was very supportive of him and his sexuality, but he wasn't exactly ready to come out at school just yet. Of course, Renjun and Donghyuck knew, as Jaemin had told his best friends, but he wasn't going around broadcasting it. Regardless of their support, and them being the same in sexuality (Renjun being bi and Donghyuck being gay as well), he wasn't sure if he wanted to put one of his only secrets out in the open.

Running his hands through his bubblegum hair, Jaemin sighed and looked up at the ceiling. After a minute, he said, “What if I don't?”

Shocked, Renjun stared at him wide-eyed. “What?”

“What if I don't hate it?” he repeated. “What if the prospect of Jeno liking me is something that I actually like, and actually want to believe - to a certain extent?”

“Well, there's nothing wrong with that of course. I'm just surprised that I was right.”

Jaemin quirked an eyebrow. “I thought you said that you were always right.”

“I mean on both aspects. I know that Jeno likes you - or at least there's a great chance that he does - and then that you like him as well.” When Renjun shared Jaemin’s ‘proclamations of love’ to the whole common room, the latter quickly held up a finger to his lips, telling him to be quiet. Luckily since they had come back early from dinner, the common room was more or less empty, save for a couple of pets.

“Say it louder, why don't you,” Jaemin hissed.

Renjun had the decency to look apologetic. “Heh, sorry.”

“I don't even know if I like him yet, and I don't need you spreading meaningless rumours about it.”

“Understandable. You're going to tell Donghyuck though, right?”

“Yea, of course,” Jaemin said. “I just don't want to act on this too much right now.”

Renjun nodded. “We should probably work on our essays for Charms now,” he said, changing the subject.

Jaemin furrowed his eyebrows. “Isn't that due on Wednesday or something?”

“Jaemin, its Tuesday.”

“Wait, what?”

“...”

“Oh shit. I barely started.”

“I have a whole two paragraphs done. We only need like four.”

“Yea, well I have a whole two sentences done. Beat that.”

 

●★●

 

“Jeno, I saw the way you were staring at Jaemin during dinner,” Chenle said, immediately interrogating him the moment they made it back to the dorm.

“And I saw you drooling over Jisung again, what's your point,” Jeno snapped.

“Damn, who pissed in your cereal?” Chenle muttered. “It's not exactly a common occurrence for you to stare at your ‘enemy’ for a half hour. I'm just curious.”

“Have you ever heard the saying ‘curiosity killed the cat?’ Right now, you're the cat,” Jeno growled.

Chenle's eyes widened and he leaned back at the threat. “Yikes,” he said. “But have you heard, ‘curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back?’”

Jeno turned around with a glare. Chenle looked at him innocently, regardless of the fact that under the ‘right’ influence the boy could be the literal spawn of Satan. He followed the older boy up to his room, not done with his interrogation.

“Why were you so... _entranced_ with Jaemin tonight?” Chenle asked as Jeno flopped onto his bed. Jeno picked up a pill bottle and took one, then opened his water bottle, swallowing the pill. Screwing the cap back on, he placed the bottle back on his nightstand. Still ignoring the question, Jeno called out for his cat. “Bongsik, nch, nch, nch, nch, nch, c'mere girl, nch, nch, nch, Bongsik~”

Fed up with Jeno ignoring the question, Chenle walked over to where Bongsik was hiding and scooped her up in his arms. He walked over to the end of the bed and faced Jeno. “I’ll give you your cat when you answer the question.”

“Hey, that’s not fair! You can’t hold my cat hostage!” Jeno exclaimed.

“I can and I will. Now, answer.”

Jeno groaned at Chenle’s response. He buried his face in his hands as he contemplated what to do. _Tell Chenle about my crush on Jaemin and get Bongsik back, or don’t tell Chenle and most likely have him keep Bongsik in his room the whole night - or at least until I tell him. Either way, I’m gonna have to tell him about Jaemin, so I might as well do it now and rescue my little baby._ “You know what? Fine,” Jeno said, sitting up and grabbing Chenle’s attention. “I’ll tell you.”

“Tell me what?” ~~The devil~~  Chenle asked innocently, stroking Bongsik’s fur.

“Why I was so ‘entranced’ with Jaemin tonight, okay?” Jeno said, putting air quotations around “entranced.” "Now give me my baby back."

Chenle smiled at Jeno’s compliance, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “No, you answer first, then I give you your ‘baby’ back.”

“Ugh, fine,” Jeno huffed. “I was just rattled by Jaemin confronting me earlier, then coming and sitting basically right in front of us,” he said. He wasn't entirely lying, but he wasn't telling the truth either.

Chenle stared at Jeno, and Jeno stared right back. Chenle scanned his face, looking for any sort of giveaways that he was lying. He must have found one because he exclaimed: “You’re lying.”

Bewildered, Jeno’s jaw dropped. “What? You think I’m lying?”

“Yea,” Chenle nodded, agreeing. “When you lie you scrunch your nose as if to push up your glasses, even if you’re not wearing them.” He pointed at Jeno, still holding on to the cat. “You did it just now.”

“Wh-what - where are you going?” Jeno asked, confused as Chenle walked out of his room and through the small corridor to the stairs.

“I’m going to do some work, and it's more comfortable in the common room,” he replied, not turning around as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. They reached the bottom of the stairs, and Chenle turned to face Jeno. “Oh, I forgot my books in my room.” he smiled sheepishly. “Could you go get them for me?” he bounced his arms, pointing out the fact that he still had Jeno’s cat.

Jeno groaned. “You couldn’t have remembered while we were up there?”

“Nope, sorry.”

“Fine,” Jeno groaned once more, dragging out the ‘I’s. “Where are your books?”

Chenle smiled like a child on Christmas morning. That should’ve made Jeno’s warning bells go off in his head, or at least made him suspicious, but he was too worried about Bongsik at the moment to be paying much attention. “They’re in my trunk. You know which one it is right? Thanks!”

 

Jeno turned and started up the stairs, a voice yelling at him in the back of his mind. Pushing it away, he opened the door to the room that Chenle was in. there was only one other person in there, and it was Sanha, another 5th year. He looked surprised when Jeno entered. “What brings you here, Jeno?”

“Oh, I’m looking for Chenle’s books. He said he needed them for some homework,” Jeno answered, scanning the room for said boy’s bed.

Sanha looked confused. “Chenle’s books? He finished all of his homework before dinner. He was gloating about it non-stop earlier.”

“What?”

“Yeah, he finished everything earli-” Sanha started, but Jeno was already out the door before he could finish. “Okay, bye, Jeno.”

 

Sure enough, when Jeno reached the common room, the devil was nowhere to be found and neither was Jeno’s cat. Jeno ruffled his hair in frustration. “Ah, fuck.”

He started running towards the entrance of the dormitory, almost crashing into the Head Boy, Kun. “Oh, Jeno. Why are you in such a rush?”

“Hi Kun,” Jeno breathed. “Have you seen Chenle recently?”

“Oh, I did actually,” Kun said. Before Jeno could utter a word to question him, Kun pointed over his shoulder, already used to them being like this. “I passed him in the hallway about 30 seconds ago. I was wondering why he was holding your cat. He barely acknowledged me.”

“Okay, thank you,” Jeno said, barely getting the words out before almost plowing through the door in pursuit of Chenle.

 

When Jeno found him, he was at the end of the hallway, up a flight or two of stairs talking to Renjun, Jaemin’s best friend. Running through the hall, Jeno practically flew up the flight of stairs, taking two at a time. He reached the platform between the second flight and Chenle just in time to hear Renjun saying, “Oh, Jaemin’s by the charms classroom in the next hallway.”

“Okay, thanks Jun-ge!” Chenle chirped before moving along.

 _Jun-ge? Since when did Chenle know Renjun?_ Jeno thought as he continued up the stairs. “Hey Renjun,” Jeno panted as he reached him on the stairs. “Where is Chenle going?”

“Oh, he said that he was looking for Jaemin,” Renjun said. “Bit random if you ask me, bu-”

“That little shit,” Jeno muttered. “Thanks, Renjun,” Jeno said quickly before running off again.

 

The second Chenle’s blond hair came into view, Jeno didn’t even care about who Chenle was about to talk to. “CHENLE!” he bellowed from the other end of the hall. He stopped running, instead opting to power walk down the corridor. The young Hufflepuff jumped at the loud voice, quickly whipping his head back around to talk to who he was approaching before. Only seeing his back, Jeno didn’t notice Chenle dumping the cat into the other person’s arms.

Rapidly losing distance between the two, Jeno started slowing down. “What the fuck,” he seethed. Noticing his empty arms, Jeno’s head snapped back up to meet Chenle’s eyes. “Where the fuck is my cat?”

“I-” Chenle started, getting cut off by Jeno grabbing the sides of his arms.

“What did you do to Bongsik? You sent me off to get your books then disappeared with my cat!”

“And I’m honestly surprised it took you that long to figure it out. You should know better by now,” Chenle said, lightly nodding his head with pursed lips. “Did Kun-ge rat me out?”

Jeno nodded. “Yeah. Also, since when did you know Renjun?”

“We’re both Chinese and living in England, Jeno. There’s only so many Chinese people coming to Hogwarts.”

“Fair enough,” Jeno said, dropping his arms. “Wait, stop distracting me. Where is Bongsik?”

At the sound of her name, Bongsik meowed lightly, alerting Jeno of her presence. Once again ignoring the third person, Jeno went straight for his cat, who was being stroked gently. “Oh my gosh, my precious little baby! Are you okay?!”

Jeno finally looked up to thank the person holding his cat - and was more shocked than he should’ve been considering what Renjun had said, but everything just went out the window when he saw his cat - and ended up looking right into the eyes of none other than Na Jaemin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hehehehe cliffhanger ;) something to look forward to in 2019 :)))))) this was actually pretty fun to write 
> 
> speaking of, Happy New Years! I hope you all had a great 2018 and an even better 2019! (hopefully we'll actually get an NCT China debut next year) NCT's constant comebacks (like jeez SM give our boys a break) really helped brighten up my year - always new bops to lose my shit over - 2018 was a year of bops
> 
> anyway, school is doing its job of keeping me busy with summatives and soon exams, so updates will be as scarce and crappy as before ;-; also as short lmao (not 4,000 words oof that takes a while) so stay tuned :)
> 
> hope you enjoyed reading
> 
> follow me on wattpad @ briangel_


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeno gets his cat back, and maybe a chance with the Slytherin beater.

“Na Jaemin?” Jaemin figured it was safe to say that Jeno was just as shocked as he was with the current situation.

“Yes, I am Na Jaemin, last time I checked,” was just about all that Jaemin's brain could process and transfer to his mouth with Jeno in such close proximity. After getting over the initial shock of Jeno being right in front of him, his brain decided to go ‘ _let’s make life as difficult as possible for the both of us._ ’

“Why was Chenle looking for you?” Jeno asked. Based on Jeno's facial expression, he already had an answer to his question, but he wanted Jaemin's answer as well.

“Honestly?” Jaemin paused to see Jeno's reaction. He seemed worried that Jaemin knew something, but Jaemin didn't know what. “I have no idea.”

Jeno seemed relieved. Jaemin looked back down at the cat that Chenle had suddenly told him to hold. He barely even knew the 5th year, except for the couple of times that Chenle had hung out with Renjun. Jaemin rubbed behind the cat’s ears as he thought, and it purred contently.

Jeno remembered something as the cat purred. “Why do you have my cat?”

Jaemin looked up at Jeno. It was his cat? _Oh, that's right,_ he thought, _he had called it his ‘precious little baby.’ That's so fucking cute, holy shit._ “I feel like Chenle would be able to answer that,” he finally said, lacking a better reason as to why he was holding Jeno's cat.

“True.” Jeno turned around to ask the youngest why exactly Jaemin was holding his cat, but he had disappeared. “Oh my god, that little shit keeps disappearing on me. I’m gonna kill him tomorrow,” he muttered. “I have an idea as to why he did this…” Jeno mumbled, not intending for Jaemin to hear him.

“What was that?” Jaemin asked, not expecting an answer.

“Huh?” Jeno said. “Oh, nothing, nothing.” he quickly waved it off. “Nothing important.”

Jaemin noticed Jeno gazing wistfully at his cat, and he almost snickered. This is when his brain went ‘ _You gotta fluster him.’_ Why, he thought. ‘ _You just gotta. How red are we gonna make him turn? Tomato or cherry?_ ’ “Do you want your cat back?” he finally said.

“Yes, I would thanks,” Jeno replied, eager to get his cat back.

Jaemin extended his arms as if to hand the animal over, but as Jeno reached out, he cradled the cat close to his chest once more. “Well, Chenle did mention something to me as he was handing over…” Jaemin paused as he didn't know the cat's name.

“Bongsik,” Jeno supplied. “Bongsik is her name.”

“Oh, she's such a cute cat. She must take after her owner then,” Jaemin said, flicking his eyes up to look at Jeno, and colour was steadily rising to his cheeks. Jeno stayed mute, so Jaemin continued. “Now, as I was saying, Chenle mentioned something to me as he was passing me Bongsik. He said that you had… how should I say this? Evaded a question that he asked and he wasn't going to give your cat back until you answered.” Jaemin had completely guessed on the last part, but it looked as though he had guessed correctly. “I think I’ll follow through with that.”

“I answered the question, he just didn't believe my answer,” Jeno said.

Seeing as Jaemin's luck was running hot, he figured that he would try guessing again. “Was he asking about… why you were _staring_ at me during dinner?” Jaemin asked as he leaned in, watching the way that Jeno's face slowly got 3 shades darker.

Jeno leaned back slightly as Jaemin leaned in, not wanting their faces in such close proximity. “No,” he mumbled.

Jaemin stood up straight while shaking his head. “You couldn't lie to Chenle, but you think that you can lie to me?” Jaemin was known around the castle for many reasons. Being on the Quidditch team as the ace beater, being so beautiful and so _flirtatious_ (everyone else's words not his), and _being able to tell when someone is lying to him._ Maybe it was because of how he held eye contact when he was talking with someone, but he was _good_.

“Okay, fine,” Jeno huffed.

Jaemin smiled victoriously. “So, tell me. What was his question?”

Jeno ran a hand through his hair as he contemplated what to tell Jaemin. “I mean… yea, he did ask me about that…” he trailed off.

Jaemin’s eyebrows twitched. “Elaborate.”

Jeno puffed his cheeks. “Do I have to…” he mumbled, not expecting Jaemin to hear it.

“Do you want your cat back?” he asked. Jeno sighed and Jaemin took it as a yes. “Then, yes. You have to answer.”

“Fine,” Jeno sighed. “He asked me why I was so “entranced” with you at dinner tonight. His words, not mine.”

“And why was that so difficult to get out?” Jeno looked at Jaemin, who was making faces at his cat, cooing occasionally.

“Well, I-I mean… I denied it, but he called bullshit on it and stole my cat.”

“That’s not the point here.”

“You know what? Fine. I was staring at you, and it was partially what I told Chenle, but it was also because-” Jeno suddenly stopped. His breath was quick, and there was colour creeping up his neck.

“Aw, you look so cute as a tomato,” Jaemin commented.

“You do too,” Jeno mumbled.

“What?”

Jeno seemed to get a sudden surge of confidence. “I mean, it's not very often that you see Na Jaemin, a known flirt, flustered by another boy. I would say that you look pretty cute as a fruit that's widely considered a vegetable as well.”

“Th-thanks,” Jaemin stuttered, taken aback by Jeno’s sudden forwardness, his being flustered taking away the urge to laugh at the fruit-vegetable-thing.

Taking advantage of him being caught off-guard, Jeno reached forward and picked up his cat from Jaemin’s arms. He made kissy faces at his cat, saying stuff like “Aw, Bongsik baby, I missed you so much, my angel.” Jaemin melted on the inside at the affection Jeno displayed towards his cat. He would be lying to himself if he said that he didn’t wish that Jeno had been talking to him instead of Bongsik for a second.

Jeno looked back at Jaemin, whose face was still the same colour as his hair. “Well, thank you for returning my cat and saving her from the devil.” When Jaemin stared at him, confused, Jeno elaborated. “Chenle, I mean. Thank you for letting Chenle give you my cat so that I would actually be able to get her back.”

Jeno started to turn around, and Jaemin began to release a breath that he hadn’t realized that he was holding. Jeno turned around again suddenly, and Jaemin almost choked on his spit. “Oh yeah,” Jeno said. “I just remembered. If Chenle comes to me tomorrow, saying something remotely similar to what I told you, you’ll be seeing me again very soon. So, please, don’t tell him. I’ll never live it down.”

Regaining his composure, Jaemin asked, “Why? Is it such a bad thing to like me?”

This time, it was Jeno who was choking. His eyes bugged out of his head, and Jaemin only found it cute. _What is wrong with me?_ He asked himself. “I-I, I never said that I liked you!” he spluttered. “I only said that you were cute!”

Jaemin giggled at his flustered expression. “Okay, okay, I was just kidding. Don’t worry, I won’t tell him. If he hears from someone, it won’t be me. Or Renjun for that matter.”

“Since when were they so close anyway?” Jeno asked. “I’ve never seen them talk before.”

“They’ve known each other for ages, maybe they only became friends recently,” Jaemin suggested. “You should ask Chenle about it. Have something to counter the questions that he’ll ask you about me with.”

“True,” Jeno agreed. “Well, I’m gonna head back now. It was nice talking to you Jaemin.” he turned around with a small wave, leaving Jaemin standing alone the hallway with his jumbled feelings.

 

●★●

 

Jeno walked back to the Hufflepuff dormitories while scratching behind Bongsik’s ears, thinking about Jaemin, and most importantly, thinking about how to kill Chenle. Maybe he would ask Doyoung for advice.

He reached the dormitories and the first thing that Jeno did was hide Bongsik somewhere that Chenle would not be able to find her. After hiding his cat, Jeno walked through the hallway connecting the rooms, searching for his blond-haired friend. He peered through the crack in the doorway of Chenle’s room, only seeing Sanha sitting on his bed. A burst of dolphin-like laughter came from the side of the room blocked by the door, and Jeno immediately knew who it was.

Standing back up straight, Jeno just about kicked open the door. “YAH, ZHONG CHENLE!” he yelled, eliciting a scream from said boy. He stalked over to Chenle’s bed with his fists clenched. Sensing Jeno’s anger, Chenle scrambled back on his bed, back hitting the wall.

“Please let me live to see Jisung another day!” he squeaked.

“You better hope I do,” Jeno growled. “What the fuck were you thinking, stealing Bongsik and giving her to Jaemin?!”

“Bold of you to assume that I was thinking,” Chenle replied, not missing a beat. “Besides, it worked didn’t it?”

“Wh-what?” Jeno said, trying his best not to turn pink. “Nothing worked, because nothing happened.”

“We’ve already proven that you can’t lie to me, Jeno. Don’t even bother trying,” Chenle crossed his arms smugly. “I won’t pry - right now, that is - and I’ll bide my time. Until then, you should get some sleep, it’s been a long day.”

Jeno agreed with what the younger was saying, nodding along tiredly. “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea as well.” he stood up straight and stared blankly at the wall for a second.

Chenle patted his shoulder, urging him to return to his room. “Good night, Jeno,” he said sweetly, trying to distract Jeno of the mischief he had been causing that day.

“I’ll get you back tomorrow,” Jeno warned before turning around and exiting the room. He closed the door fully behind him and smiled to himself as he walked down the hallway. Had anyone else been there, they probably would’ve been concerned about his sanity. “As much as Chenle gushes over Jisung, I wonder what would happen to the Devil if Jisung were to talk to him. Would he short-circuit? I guess we’ll have to find out. Now I have a favour to ask Jisung tomorrow during potions…”

 

●★●

 

“Oh my god, Renjun, I thought that I was going to explode,” Jaemin ranted to his best friend. “He ended up so close to my face, and all that my brain could process was how cute he looked when he was flustered. Oh lord, what is this boy doing to me?”

“If I had known that you realizing your feelings would come to this, I would’ve just let you struggle,” Renjun said. Regardless of what he said, Jaemin knew that Renjun wouldn’t let him suffer and pine over a boy for more than a week.

Jaemin rolled his eyes at his indifference. Suddenly Ten, a seventh year, stuck his head into the room. “Oh, Jaemin!” he said, “Johnny asked me to tell you about the practice that the Quidditch will have tomorrow at six-thirty to practice for the upcoming game against Hufflepuff.” Johnny was the Slytherin Quidditch team’s co-captain. Ten wasn’t on the team, but he often helped around to keep things running smoothly.

“Okay, you can tell him that I’ll be there,” Jaemin replied with an “OK” sign held up by his face.

“I’m not your messenger, but whatever,” Ten grumbled.

“You seem to be doing a great job passing things along for Johnny,” Jaemin remarked. “I don’t hear any complaints there.”

Ten flipped his imaginary hair. “Please, we all know that the team would crumble without my skills. Have you ever had to write a letter in order to get a raincheck on the field for practice? Yea, I didn’t think so.” he then turned and walked out of the room, but not before adding a quiet: “I don’t even get a thanks from you peasants.”

“Thank you, Ten!” Jaemin called out behind him. He turned back to Renjun. “Tomorrow is going to be interesting,” he said, not truly understanding what would be going down the next day.

“Oh yea, I can tell.”

 

●★●

 

The next morning, Jeno got up early enough that Chenle couldn’t even harass him out of bed.

“That takes all the fun out of my mornings,” the younger complained, his whining driving Jeno up the walls.

Not being able to take it anymore, Jeno stopped and looked at Chenle. “If it’ll get you to shut up, I’ll let you drag me out of bed tomorrow, and if I don’t get up you can hit me with a pillow. Deal?” Jeno proposed.

“I think that I would end up in pain if I did that, let’s be honest.”

Jeno rolled his eyes. “Fine,” he huffed. “You can hit me with no repercussions. Ok?”

Chenle’s face lit up with an undeniably adorable smile. “Deal!”

“Now let’s get to breakfast. I have practice later and I don’t want to be falling off my broom.”

“Again,” Chenle interjected with a cheeky smile. “You don’t want that to happen, again.”

“Now you’re pushing it, you little shit,” Jeno said. Chenle took off running, covering the remaining distance to their table and trying not to bump into anyone. He didn’t end up with any collisions, but Jeno wasn’t so lucky.

“Jeno!” Jaemin exclaimed, stumbling back from the contact. “Good morning,” he said, stabilized. “What’s happening? Why are you running?”

“Uhhhhh,” Jeno said intelligently, hyper-aware of Jaemin’s hand on his arm. “I was running after Chenle. You know, regular stuff.”

“Regular, huh? I guess this happens often?” Jaemin asked, quirking a brow.

“Well, not regularly, it just seems to be happening a lot more often, lately,” Jeno said, looking over to meet Chenle’s eyes. Making eye contact, he pointed at him, then threateningly dragged his thumb across his throat in a slitting motion. His attention was brought back to Jaemin with a giggle.

“It’s like looking in a mirror,” he laughed. “Renjun and Donghyuck are literally the exact same.”

Jeno smiled. “I would love to talk longer, but I have to eat something and a best friend to kill. I’ll see you later,” Jeno said, ignoring the stares and whispers from across the Great Hall.

Jeno sat down beside Chenle, starting to pile bacon onto his plate. “Aw, I’m honoured to be your best friend,” Chenle said, his head resting on his hand as he looked at Jeno.

Not looking back at the obnoxious boy, Jeno pushed his hand out from under his chin, letting his head drop dangerously close to the table. “Shut it, you little ass.”

“You love me though,” Chenle said, and Jeno could practically hear his grin.

“Damn right, but god you can be a pain in the ass.” _Just you wait,_ Jeno thought. _You’re gonna regret ever touching my cat later._

 

●★●

 

Jeno walked down the hallway to potions, catching sight of the familiar tall shock of blond hair. “Oi, Jisung! Wait up!” Jeno called out, jogging to catch up with the Gryffindor.

“I have a favour to ask.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> exams start on Friday hhhh ;-; 
> 
> this chapter is a bit shorter, but who doesn't love being tortured by cliffhangers for weeks on end? ;) (quite literally - I'm a shit updater)
> 
> GOD BLESS WAYV BUT GODDAMMIT I WAS PISSED WHEN WINWIN GOT THE SAME FUCKING LINE AS BEFORE (notice how it is line, as in singular, not plural)
> 
> but anyway, yeethaw, hope y'all enjoyed :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> everyone getting together - or almost everyone.
> 
> clarification:
> 
> 1st part: Chenle P.O.V  
> 2nd part: Jeno P.O.V  
> last parts: Jaemin's P.O.V

It was a couple of days after Chenle had gone on the great cat escapade and Jeno still hadn’t done anything. When he didn’t do anything the day after, Chenle had gotten a bit suspicious, expecting Jeno to get him back by now. On the second day, Chenle was still slightly paranoid but his guard was mostly down at that point.

Chenle’s lunch was going by peacefully, or as peaceful as it could be while sitting with Yukhei, a seventh year from China. Yukhei had just finished eating his lunch and gone to find Jungwoo at the Ravenclaw table, where he was sitting with Yang Yang and Taeil when he saw someone walking over to him.

“Chenle!” the boy waved with a small smile.

“Oh, Xiaojun-ge, what brings you here?” Chenle smiled.

“Nothing much, I just came to talk to you.” As he sat down, a familiar face caught his eye from where Xiaojun’s head had just been and he almost choked on his juice.

“Why the hell is Jisung Park walking over here?” Chenle whispered to the air.

“Maybe because he wants to talk to you,” Xiaojun guessed.

“I’ve never talked to him before - he probably doesn’t even know who I am! So why the fuck is he coming this way?” Chenle whisper-shouted.

Jisung reached the Hufflepuff table and smiled awkwardly. Chenle still found his smile endearing. He really was gone. “Hi, Chenle.”

Xiaojun put his hands on the table and pushed himself up. “Maybe I’ll talk to you later then, Chenle. See you.”

Chenle tried to say “don’t leave me,” but all that came out instead was a strangled noise from the back of his throat. Chenle looked back up at Jisung for a split second before looking back down at the table. The tall Gryffindor shifted awkwardly, not knowing what to do next. He coughed, the silence almost suffocating.

“Can I sit?” Jisung finally asked.

“Sure,” Chenle mumbled. “Whatever you want.”

If Chenle wasn’t in his state of shock from being approached by  _ the  _ Jisung Park, the person he’s had a crush on for a year, he might’ve noticed Jeno watching the whole situation from the doors of the Great Hall.

 

●★●

 

Jeno’s full attention was on the scene that was unfolding in front of him that he managed to miss Donghyuck sneaking up behind him. Donghyuck clapped a hand down on his shoulder and Jeno jumped nearly a foot in the air. He put a hand over his heart, trying to calm it down from beating a mile a minute. “Jesus Christ, Donghyuck. You just took five years off of my life span.”

“You would be a terrible spy,” Donghyuck said.

“I never said that I was trying to be a spy!” Jeno protested. “My heart sped up so fast that I thought I was gonna have a heart attack, you dumbass.”

Donghyuck smirked. “As if Jaemin doesn’t do that every time you talk to him.”

Jeno’s mouth gaped. “What are you talking about?”

“Bud, you’re not exactly inconspicuous anymore. And I say anymore because before Jaemin approached you to resolve the conflict that you didn’t really have, you did a fairly good job at hiding your feelings. Now that you guys are on speaking terms, I feel like you’ve let your guard down and now you’re being more… obvious about your feelings,” Donghyuck explained. “I guess you’re just lucky that Jaemin is just as oblivious as you are.”

“What do you mean by that?” Jeno asked, clearly offended.

“What? Offended that I stated the obvious? Sometimes the truth hurts, honey.”

“I’m gonna beat your ass, Lee Donghyuck,” Jeno threatened jokingly. Donghyuck let out a cackle and the sound of Jeno’s shoe hitting Donghyuck echoed through the mostly empty hallway.  _ Mostly empty _ , save for how both Jeno and Donghyuck missed the fact that Jaemin was rapidly approaching them, planning to scare Donghyuck. The two resettled by the door again, continuing to watch the scene unfold, oblivious.

Luckily for both of them, Renjun yelled Jaemin’s name, successfully getting his attention, as well as Jeno and Donghyuck’s. The two standing by the doors turned and saw Jaemin standing in the middle of the hallway. Silently agreeing that it would be the best idea, although realistically it was definitely  _ not _ , they took off running into the Great Hall. Jeno joined Donghyuck at the Gryffindor table for a minute, letting Jisung continue talking to Chenle.

Jisung suddenly turned around, meeting Jeno’s eyes. Jisung twitched his head, motioning for the Hufflepuff to trade places with him. Reluctantly, Jeno got up, walking over to where he was sitting with Chenle. “Hey, Jisung. How are you?” Jeno greeted the younger.

“Oh, pretty good. How much have you gotten done on the potions essay?” Jisung asked innocently, pretending as if it wasn’t Jeno who asked him to talk to Chenle. They had made a deal in order for Jisung to agree to talk to Chenle, even if he wasn’t against the idea in the first place. What Jeno didn’t know, was how when he got the two devils together, all hell would break loose. But that was for him to find out later.

Jisung turned back to Chenle, an almost unnoticeable blush dusting the Hufflepuff’s cheeks. “Sorry, Chenle. I gotta go, but I’ll see you around.” he got up with a small wave. “See you in potions tomorrow, Jeno.”

Jeno smiled back at Jisung and was met with a shocked Chenle. “Oh, close your mouth, you’re going to start catching flies.”

“There are no flies in Hogwarts, Jeno.” he looked at his best friend. “Why the fuck did Jisung Park just talk to me, and how the hell do you know him?”

Jeno thought back to their conversation before potions the day before.

 

_ “Oi, Jisung!” Jeno called out. “I have a favour to ask.” _

_ Jisung turned at the sound of his name. “Yea, Jeno-hyung? What is it?” Jeno barely noticed the “hyung” that Jisung so rarely used, the little twerp refusing honorifics. He always treasured the few times that they were used.  _

_ “You know Chenle, right?” Jeno asked. _

_ “You mean the cute one with the dolphin laugh?” _

_ “Yea, that one. Wait… did you just call him cute?” Jeno exclaimed. “That’s off topic. I’ll be asking you about that later. But for now, I have a favour to ask.” _

_ Jisung perked up, more interested with the mention of Chenle. “So, you’ve never really acknowledged Chenle before, right?” _

_ “I’m too embarrassed to, to be completely honest with you. It's hard to pretend to not notice him staring from across the Great Hall,” Jisung said, rubbing his nape. _

_ “Yea, he’s not exactly inconspicuous. Damn you, Park Jisung. You’re the reason I get dragged out of bed so early every morning,” Jeno complained, making Jisung laugh. _

_ “Sorry,” Jisung said with a cheeky smile. Jeno could tell that he didn’t mean it. _

_ “Anyway, it would be nice if you could acknowledge him tomorrow… maybe at lunch? You know, look at him, make eye contact. Maybe if you’re feeling adventurous, talk to him.” Jeno nudged his arm. _

_ “And what’s in it for me?” Jisung raised an eyebrow. “I mean, you know I wouldn’t do something this big without something in it for me.” _

_ “I’ll buy you something in Hogsmeade,” Jeno proposed. _

_ “Anything I want?” Jisung asked. _

_ “Anything within reason,” Jeno said, knowing that Jisung would probably ask for a broom or something ridiculously expensive. _

_ “Ok, deal.”  _

 

“Uh, well, you see… Jisung has just-so-happened to be in my potions class since the second week of classes,” Jeno confessed, discreetly bringing his hands up to plug his ears from what was about to come.

“WHAT?!” Chenle exclaimed, justifying his title as a dolphin within their house. As if realizing his volume, his next words were much quieter. “But you didn’t tell me?” Chenle scoffed. “And you call yourself my best friend. Shameful. What a betrayal. Shook. None of us ever saw this coming, not from the ever so loyal Lee Jeno. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over this,” he said dramatically, a hand over his forehead.

“Is Jisung good at potions? Does he get good grades in the class? Jeno, I don’t think you truly know how lucky you are to get to have him in your class,” Chenle started after a moment of thought. “I mean, he’s honestly just so-”

“You see, this is why I didn’t tell you. I was saving myself from you constantly attacking me with questions about Jisung every time I have potions,” Jeno said, cutting him off. “And Jisung is a fifth year in sixth-year advanced potions, Chenle. You tell me if he’s good at potions or not.”

Chenle pondered for a moment. “Fair enough. I see your point.” he smiled. “I wouldn’t have done it  _ every _ time that you had potions, but now that you’ve exposed yourself, I’m gonna make you regret it.”

Jeno sighed at his declaration. “I suppose it will be well deserved at this point.”

“But did you know that Jisung is just so endearingly  _ awkward _ ? It's literally the cutest thing ever, and he’s actually so fun to talk to. We have more in common than I thought. Even if he isn’t interested in me, I can tell that we’ll probably become great friends.”

Jeno nodded, happy for the small boy. Contrary to what Jeno always called him, which varied from short to lima bean, he was slowly creeping up on him in height. What a scary thought. He was brought back from his inner dialogue when Chenle started talking again. “Was that Donghyuck that you were running across the Great Hall with earlier? One of Na Jaemin’s best friends?”

“Well, he’s also my friend. We have potions together,” Jeno explained.

“Oh, that’s right, you have potions with the Gryffindors. Hm, I’ll have to say hi at some point.” As Jeno was no master of occlumency, he could sadly not see Chenle’s inner thoughts. He wasn’t sure he wanted to. If he could, he would’ve seen that opposing Jaemin’s promise, Chenle had heard about their interaction from Renjun. Since Donghyuck was also Jaemin and Jisung’s friend, he was planning to do something about the feelings that he was sure Jeno had for the Slytherin - with the Gryffindors’ help obviously.

“Why were you running anyway?” Chenle asked.

Jeno looked over his shoulder at the Gryffindor table where he had left Donghyuck, and he was now joined by Mark Lee and Jisung at the table. To his surprise, Jaemin was also sitting beside him instead of at the Slytherin table. They briefly met eyes, and Jeno looked away quickly, flushed lightly, but still noticeable. 

Chenle noticed this and gave what Jeno called the ‘Satan Smile.’ “Ah yes, as for the results of the SSBS, it seems to have been a successful operation.”

“SSBS? What the hell is SSBS?” Jeno asked, confusion written all over his face.

“SSBS. Sister Stealing Bongsik Stunt,” Chenle explained. “Pretty great name, huh?”

“Why the ‘sister’, though?” Jeno questioned.

“Well, you see, when Amber comes to visit during the summer, we sometimes watch James Charles. He’s quite entertaining, and I tend to pick up on some of his sayings, like ‘love that’ and ‘fun and fresh,’” Chenle said, not even slightly embarrassed of watching the muggle YouTube star.

“You’ll have to show me a video or two sometime,” Jeno suggested.

“I think Donghyuck could do that as well,” Chenle said. “I mean, he seems to be the kind of person that would watch him.”

After a moment of silence, Chenle clucked his tongue. “Speaking of, it seems that a certain Slytherin can’t take his eyes off you, over there.” he wiggled his eyebrows.

“What do you mean? Donghyuck is a Gryffindor.” Jeno turned around obliviously to meet the burning gaze of who else, but Na Jaemin. His head was propped up by his hand, and he seemed to be staring holes through the back of Jeno’s head. All at once, colour flooded to Jeno’s face and neck.

“I didn’t think your hair was all that interesting, but here we are,” Chenle said, causing Jneo to whip his head around so fast that he was sure he pulled something.

“Dumb bitch,” Jeno muttered.

“Poor Jeno, thinking that he could hide his feelings after a confrontation, but it turns out that he was much more transparent than he thought.” When Jeno only furrowed his brows, Chenle kept going. 

“Oh please, like the blush on your face isn’t like a neon sign saying, ‘I like you, Na Jaemin!’ You can’t even deny it because you know it’s true. Did you not think that I formulated SSBS practically the hour that you told me about Jaemin confronting you for the first time? Would I truly be your best friend if I didn’t? No, I wouldn’t be, so all it took for me to put SSBS into action was for you to act the slightest bit flustered at the mention of Jaemin. I have to say, the results turned out to be more than ideal, so I think that it was a good job on my part. Jeno, you might actually have a chance with him! The guy that you’ve been crushing on for the past, like, two years!”

“Wait, how did you know that I’ve liked him for two years? Also, keep it down, I don’t need the whole school hearing about this. I can’t exactly leave until June, and neither can you, so watch yourself.”

“It was a lucky guess, but you just confirmed it, my friend,” Chenle said, ignoring Jeno's threat.

“You are literally the devil incarnate,” Jeno snarled, only half-jokingly.

Chenle smiled. “I know. I try.”

 

●★●

 

“Yah, Lee Donghyuck, what were you doing with Jeno earlier?” Jaemin asked his best friend, nudging his shoulder.

“Why do you care?” Donghyuck asked, unbothered.

“Because you’re my best friend?” Jaemin said, his voice lilting near the end making it sound more like a question than anything.

“Mhm. Don’t give me that bullshit. Don’t think that I’m so oblivious to your silent pining over Jeno,” Donghyuck said, glancing over at Jaemin.

Jaemin winced. “Was it obvious?”

“Na Jaemin, when have you ever been on the down low about who you’re interested in?” Donghyuck asked rhetorically. “You wouldn’t be Na Jaemin, the famous flirt if not.”

Jaemin jutted out his bottom lip and nodded. “I suppose. It’s not like I wanted this title.”

“If the shoe fits.”

“Ugh, whatever. Fine, but what were you doing?” Jaemin asked, borderline whining. “Tell me, tell me, c’mon tell me,” he full on whined this time, shaking Donghyuck’s arm.

“God, you can be annoying. Fine, I’ll tell you. Jeno was getting back at Chenle for stealing Bongsik with Jisung, so we were watching it happen - quality entertainment by the way - and then we saw you coming down the hallway and Jeno enjoys running from his feeli-” Donghyuck suddenly cut himself off. He looked as though he was trying to eat his lips.

Jaemin found the visual funny, but he was distracted by what Donghyuck had said, or at least started to say. “Were you going to say ‘running from his feelings’?” when he got nothing in return, Jaemin continued to pester his best friend. “What was it? What was itttt? Please, Hyuckie, tell me!”

“You know what? I’ll tell you, and only because you’re annoying the hell out of me,” Donghyuck sighed. “Let’s just say that you might have a chance, and your pining might not be completely hopeless.”

Jaemin was stunned, to say the least. “W-wait, so you’re telling me… that Jeno...”

Donghyuck put his head in his hands, starting to regret opening his mouth in the first place. He just hoped that everything would work out well so that it wouldn’t fall back on him if things went badly. Oh, and so that his friends would be happy and stop being pining losers or whatever. “Oh my god, I pray for all of my oblivious friends.”

“Oh, like you couldn’t say the same thing with Mark. Don’t act so entitled.” Jaemin rolled his eyes.

“For your information, it only took him three months to realize. That isn’t too bad considering his track record, let’s be honest. I mean, I didn’t realize his feelings until recently either,” Donghyuck said, straightening his shoulders.

“Wait what?!” Jaemin exclaimed. “You guys are finally together?!”

“Yes, as of last week, actually. But that’s not the important thing right now,” he said seeing Jaemin’s expression. “Anyway, yes, I’m ninety-nine percent sure that Jeno likes you as well, dumbass,” he explained, exasperated.

Jaemin sat there, mouth opening and closing like a fish in desperate need of water. “Oh.”

“Yeah. oh,” Donghyuck said. Jaemin simply stared at him blankly, unmoving. Donghyuck speared a piece of fruit with his fork and waved it in front of his face before shoving it into his open mouth. “Eat.”

 

●★●

 

Jaemin could barely sleep that night. There seemed to be a new draft that opened up in the wall by his bed, making it feel colder than normal. It wasn’t helping that Youngjae seemed to be snoring louder than normal. Maybe it was just him being hypersensitive to every little thing. Maybe it was the fact that his mind was louder than the outside world, preventing him from escaping into the land of sleep for the remaining hours of the night. Lee Jeno. The one thing - or person rather - that was preventing his mind from going silent.

Lee Jeno and his stupidly perfect body, his ridiculously stable and high grades, his annoyingly attractive face. He couldn’t keep the Hufflepuff out of his mind, and now his almost non-existent sleep schedule was paying the price for it. “Oh my god, Lee Jeno,  _ please,  _ just let me sleep,” Jaemin mumbled quietly to himself. Not too long after, he finally managed to drift off, but not before formulating a plan for the next day.

 

●★●

 

It was right before breakfast, and Jeno was walking by himself to the Great Hall. Unbeknownst to him, Jaemin was catching up to him quickly from behind. “Lee Jeno,” said a voice as a hand clamped down on his shoulder.

Having jumped 5 feet out of his skin, Jeno whipped his head around to confront the perpetrator, and, it had been happening a lot recently, ended up looking directly into the eyes of Na Jaemin.  _ It's too early for this shit,  _  Jeno thought, already dreading what was to come.

“Lee Jeno,” Jaemin said, not breaking eye contact. “Do you like me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess who updated after 20 days... this bitch :)
> 
> my report card was A-OK which I'm pretty happy about - I'm still allowed in my house with an average of 88
> 
> do you notice a recurring theme in my chapters/writing? If you guessed cliffhangers, then you're right ;) (that and then letting y'all suffer for weeks on end)
> 
> the funniest videos are nct struggling with Korean, I mean I just fucking lose it every time lmao
> 
> on a different note, I think that this will likely be the second last chapter ;-; i hope you guys all enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoy writing it !


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaemin finally gets that confession that he was looking for

Jaemin was frustrated, to say the least. He was direct, outright asking what he wanted to be answered, but Jeno still managed to evade the question. Renjun and Donghyuck were shocked as well.

“That little shit is sneakier than I thought,” Donghyuck said. “What did he say exactly?”

Jaemin sighed just thinking about it. “He said that he would tell me after the Quidditch game against his house tomorrow, and only if Slytherin wins.”

Renjun tried to stifle a snort, failing as the embarrassing sound escaped through his nose. “He’s definitely picked up a thing or two from Chenle, I can tell you that.”

Jaemin glowered at him, annoyed with the whole situation. “Well, Hufflepuff is about to have the hardest game of their lives,” Jaemin declared. “Slytherin is going to win, and Jeno brought this upon himself. We’ll finish this the way we started; Quidditch.”

“Oh boy,” Donghyuck muttered under his breath, while Renjun simply hummed, feigning disinterest by reading a book.

“M’kay, you do you, boo,” Renjun said, flipping the page.

Jaemin rolled his eyes. “Wow, thanks for the support, Junnie. I was hoping for more of a reaction.”

Renjun looked over the edge of his book, only moving his eyes. “I’ll only give more of a reaction if you say that  _ you’re  _ going to confess to Jeno, and not make him do it.”

Jaemin scowled but grumbled out a “fine,” nonetheless.

Hearing his response, both Renjun and Donghyuck put on the most shit-eating grins Jaemin had ever seen. “Wonderful. Just peachy,” he sighed.

Donghyuck smiled, but a smile that would make any sensible person want to flee for their own personal safety. “Oh, honey, there is no way that you’re getting out of this now.”

 

●★●

 

Jeno was anxious. Tomorrow was the match between Hufflepuff and Slytherin, which was now also known as the day that he may or may not confess to Jaemin; the prospect of that was more nerve-wracking than the game itself.

He was walking through the halls, his feet subconsciously bringing him towards the Gryffindor tower. Jeno was trying hard not to bite his nails when in his daze he, almost literally, bumped into Taeyong and Jaehyun, a couple of seventh year Gryffindors.

“Woah, hey, Jeno,” Taeyong said as he brushed by them. “Where are you going?”

Taeyong’s voice snapped Jeno from his thoughts. “Oh, nowhere, I guess I was just walking around.”

“You should be careful,” Jaehyun said, “Staircases aren’t stationary around here, you should know that. Don’t want you falling down three flights.” he chuckled, trying to make it lighthearted, but Jeno still got the wonderful visual of him plunging to his death from the stairs. Maybe he should be more aware.

“Wouldn’t want that now, would we?” Jeno gave him a stiff half-assed smile. “I would still prefer that over the game tomorrow,” Jeno mumbled.

“Why do you say that?” Taeyong inquired, curious as to why Jeno wouldn’t want to play. “You’re one of the best chasers that Hufflepuff has ever had!”

Jeno smiled a bit more naturally, not feeling too miffed over Taeyong hearing what he said. “Thanks, Taeyong.”

“We’ll be rooting for you tomorrow, Jeno,” Jaehyun said, holding up his fist in a cheering manner.

Jeno held up his fist as well, mirroring the older’s actions. “I’ll try my best not to let you guys down.”

Taeyong clapped Jeno lightly on the back. “We’ll see you around, Jeno. Good luck tomorrow!”

“Thank you,” Jeno said before continuing along the halls until he reached the Gryffindor tower. He stood in front of the portrait that acted as the entrance to the common room. He wasn’t sure of the password, so he simply waited there, staring at the Fat Lady. Soon enough, the portrait swung open, almost hitting Jeno, and out came Donghyuck.

“Hi, Donghyuck,” Jeno said, his voice monotone.

“Oh, Jesus Christ, Jeno, you scared the shit out of me,” Donghyuck dramatized, holding a hand over his heart. He looked back at Jeno who was unfazed by his reaction. “What do you want?”

When Jeno furrowed his brows, Donghyuck backtracked. “No, no, no, that’s not what I meant, I just mean what brings you here?”

Jeno cracked a smile. “Hyuck, chill. I know what you mean. I just came because I wanted, well rather needed, to talk to you.”

Donghyuck raised his eyebrows. “Okay. Then what do you need?”

Jeno gave him an exasperated look. “Well obviously not here.”

“Oh.”

“Let’s go to the library,” Jeno suggested.

 

The two settled into a table between two bookshelves near the back of the library. Donghyuck sat across from Jeno, looking him in the eyes. “Okay, now spill.”

Jeno suddenly seemed to find the table very interesting. He scratched at the dented surface, avoiding Donghyuck’s gaze. “C’mon, Jeno. You’re the one that wanted to talk to me!”

“Yeah, well,” he mumbled.

Donghyuck groaned and threw his head back. “Jesus, just spit it out already.”

“I’m not Jesus, but okay.” Jeno smiled. “I assume that you already know about how I avoided Jaemin’s question about me liking him earlier?”

“Well, yeah, duh,” Donghyuck said. “He’s my best friend. Bold of you to assume that I didn’t help plot the whole thing.”

Jeno put his head in his hands and sighed. “I’m guessing that you know that I like Jaemin. And if not, then you do now.”

Donghyuck’s eyes widened in surprise. “I mean, I had my suspicions, but hearing you actually confirm it - that’s different.”

“Yea, well, whatever. Anyway, so I’ve avoided the question for now.”

“Which is very impressive considering how direct he was,” Donghyuck interjected. “Didn’t he straight up ask you if you liked him?”

“Yea, but it’s not like I was gonna answer as directly as I was asked. My brain and confidence cannot handle that kind of pressure.” Jeno went back to scratching at the table.

“Okay, so, to get out of it I told him that I’d tell him if Slytherin won the match. But the problem is that it’s an important game that we can’t lose, so I don’t want to lose the game. Then, on the other hand, I do sort of want to tell Jaemin that I like him, but that would mean Hufflepuff losing the game and then my team being mad at me. Hyuck, I don’t know what to do,” Jeno whined.

“Okay, think of it this way. It’s not elimination like it is during the actual tournament at the end of the year, so it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you lost. But if you lost, and Jaemin reciprocates your feelings, then you’ll come out of this whole ordeal less lonely than you started. That meaning with a boyfriend. It’s a good result no matter what, so you should just play like you normally do and whatever happens, happens,” Donghyuck advised. “Just for reference, I’m enjoying life a whole lot more in a relationship than I was this past year single.”

Jeno nodded, looking thoughtful about the advice given. “Thanks, Hyuck. I appreciate you listening.”

Donghyuck tapped the table twice. “Anytime, Jen-Jen. See you later!” he said as he stood up and walked out of the library.

“My name is not Jen-Jen,” Jeno grumbled to himself. He pulled out a book from the shelf behind him, not really minding the content, mostly looking for a quick distraction. Eventually, he nodded off, arms folded and head resting against the open book, his dreams ridden with cotton candy-coloured hair.

 

●★●

 

Jaemin woke up to a rough shove on his shoulder. “Jaemin. Get up, you have a game today.”

He reached up to swat the hands away. “Five more minutes,” he mumbled.

In return for his words, he got another shove, only harder this time, followed by a smack. “ _ No,  _ get up. Not in five minutes, now.”

Jaemin groaned in response. Without warning, a barrage of hits was unleashed onto his exposed side. “Ow, ow,  _ ow,  _ oh my god, okay, I’m getting up now.”

He blearily sat up, turning towards the attacker. “What the fuck, Yuta? Why did you do that?”

“Well, Johnny asked Ten to wake you up, who then said ‘oh hell no,’ and asked Renjun to wake you up. But then he said ‘no, I need coffee,’ so he asked me to do it, and now here we are.” Yuta smiled.

Still squinting from just waking up, Jaemin glared at Yuta to the best of his abilities. “So why the fuck did you hit me?”

“Ooh, cussy, aren’t we?” Yuta grinned. “Because Renjun said that it was the most effective way to wake you up.”

“That’s bullshit,” Jaemin argued. “Literally any other way would’ve been better.”

“Oh, you would’ve preferred water then?” Yuta asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jaemin glared at him once more. “You know what I mean.”

Yuta smiled, temporarily blinding Jaemin with how bright it was. “Anyway, we have our Quidditch match today, and we need to be ready for a quick practice that is in.” Yuta paused to check his watch. “Half an hour. You need to get dressed and eat, so I recommend that you get a move on.”

“Okay, thanks, now go away,” Jaemin said, shooing him away with one hand. “I need to get dressed and I would rather you not be in here.”

“Okay, I’ll see you later on the pitch, Jaemin. Make sure to eat enough for breakfast.” Yuta smiled once more before leaving the room.

Jaemin flopped back on his bed, still tired from his late night the day before. He had stayed up late trying to plan out how he could get Jeno to answer his question once and for all, even if Slytherin did lose. Oh, and working on an assignment, but that was at the bottom of his priorities. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be the case, and Jaemin would be coming out of this match with a win  _ and _ a boyfriend. He buried his face in his face and groaned, not caring about the possibility of being heard. 

“Literally fucking shoot me, I don’t want to deal with this,” Jaemin moaned one last time before finally dragging himself out of bed. 

As he got dressed, Jaemin mumbled to himself, “I just have to play twice as hard today. I mean, the motivation is there. Just you wait, Jeno. You’ll never know what hit you. Hopefully, I don’t accidentally hit you with a bludger, though.”

 

 

Jaemin wandered down to breakfast, half dressed in his green Quidditch robes and the other half in his uniform. He tiredly plopped down next to Renjun who piled a couple of pancakes onto his plate. “Eat,” he said. “I know that you don’t really want to, but it’ll be for the best. Especially if you want to play hard later.”

“Thanks, Renjun,” Jaemin said with a smile. He ate the two pancakes on his plate then proceeded to eat the better part of a bagel.

“Okay, maybe I was wrong; you do seem pretty hungry,” Renjun remarked as Jaemin emptied his goblet once more. “Don’t drink too much juice, though. You don’t want to have to go during the game, do you?”

“I-I mean, we have to win the game today. You know, important game in the season and all.” Jaemin waved his spoon around. “A very high-stakes game.”

“Yeah, for you maybe. I’m pretty excited to see how this game will turn out,” Renjun said. “You have ten minutes before you need to be on the field, hurry up.”   
  


Jaemin shoved his last bit of food into his mouth and looked up to meet the eyes of who else, but Lee Jeno. Jaemin was having conflicting emotions about the scene as he had just shoved a whole bunch of food into his mouth which is _totally_ _super attractive_ , but on the other hand, there was colour steadily making it’s way up Jeno’s neck and face as he quickly looked back down at his food, embarrassed to be caught staring.  Jaemin couldn’t help but feel a small victory at his actions. 

_ Maybe I can use this to my advantage later, _ Jaemin thought. He was roughly brought back to reality by a slap on the back and Renjun yelling “C’mon hurry up, you have two minutes!” into his ear.

  
  
  


Eventually, it was time for the game. The practice was short, having it only being them reviewing their plays. They all sat in the changeroom, light chatter filling the otherwise silent space. Jaemin wasn’t talking, though. He was sitting alone in the middle of the bench, thinking about what would be happening after the game ended. If Slytherin won, he would  _ finally  _ get Jeno’s answer. If not, then he didn’t know what he would do. 

Five minutes before the game started, Johnny rounded them all up. “Okay guys, this game might not be as important as others, but we still have to play our absolute best, just like if it was a championship game.” Jaemin almost laughed when Johnny said that it wasn’t an important game; for him, there was a lot on the line.

“Okay, team, we’re gonna go out there, and we’re gonna play our best. Hands in.” They all stacked their hands, Johnny’s on top. “Okay, on three. One, two, three! SLYTHERIN!” the team yelled in unison.

Jaemin could hear the cheers of the crowd in the stands from the changeroom, giving him even more energy. He fell into line with the rest of his team as they walked onto the pitch, the sun bright. They lined up across from the Hufflepuff team, green against yellow. Jaemin found Jeno in the Hufflepuff line and made eye contact with him. 

Mrs. McCallion opened the chest holding down the bludgers and snitch in the middle of the field, letting the balls fly into the air. She started counting down from five, preparing to throw the quaffle and start the game. Both teams mounted their brooms. At two seconds, Jaemin met Jeno’s gaze and shot him a wink. Jeno’s eyes widened and colour flooded his cheeks at the sudden action.

It had the effect that Jaemin wanted because when Mrs. McCallion finally blew the whistle, Jeno kicked off a split second too late and Slytherin got the quaffle. Jaemin liked Quidditch because it was anything but a slow sport. 5 minutes into the game, it was already 20-10, Slytherin in the lead.

Jaemin flew around the pitch, pounding the bludgers with the beater’s bat at Hufflepuff’s Chasers, as well as a few near misses to their Keeper to distract him to make it easier for Slytherin to score.

 

●★●

 

Half an hour had passed and the score was now at 120-90 for Slytherin. Jaemin was playing his hardest, and it showed. He was hitting the bludgers harder and faster than normal, and Jeno took notice to it. He realized after a bludger had flown past his face, narrowly missing him and hitting Yukhei who was flying beside him.

Xiaojun, Hufflepuff’s Seeker, had the snitch in his sights and was speeding towards it. Donghyuck was the announcer for the game, and Jeno heard him exclaim something about Hufflepuff almost having the golden snitch.

Clearly, Jaemin had heard it as well because, within the next five seconds, there was a bludger shooting towards Xiaojun as he extended his arm out towards the tiny ball. The bludger made contact with the end of his broom, spinning him wildly, away from the snitch. As Xiaojun fought to regain control of his broom, Yuta flew past him, successfully snatching the snitch out of the air. Or as Chenle would say, he Sister Snatched the Snitch.

Cheers erupted from the crowd as Yuta held the snitch in his hand and pumped it in the air as a celebration. Jeno knew what this meant; he had to confess to Jaemin now. His heart was beating fast, but mostly out of anticipation, not fright or nervousness.

Jeno searched the pitch for Jaemin with his eyes, the pink head of hair catching is attention. In Jeno’s opinion, he looked ethereal. Jaemin was sweaty from flying around for an hour, consistently smashing bludgers with his bat. His sweat made him glow in the sun, but with the smile on his face after winning, Jeno thought that maybe Jaemin  _ was  _ the sun.

The players of both teams land, the Slytherins all going to doggy pile their captain. They were all laughing, smiling so wide that their cheeks felt as though they were going to rip. Jeno noticed that Jaemin’s smile seemed the widest and brightest of them all, most likely due to what winning the game meant for him.

 

 

Eventually, the stands and both of the teams cleared out, leaving only Jeno and Jaemin standing on the field. Jaemin had controlled his smile, his lips now only slightly turned up at the corners, even though Jeno could clearly see the happiness shining in eyes as he approached Jeno.

“You played well today,” Jeno complimented, internally dancing at how Jaemin had to bite back his growing smile.

“Thank you. You played very well today as well,” Jaemin said. “I mean you play well every time so it doesn’t mean much,” he laughed.

Jeno looked down at his feet, his own smile growing until it stretched across most of his face, which was dusted a pretty pink at that point. 

Jeno looked back up at Jaemin, meeting his eyes. “You know, that wink that you gave me at the beginning was pretty cheap,” he said.

Jaemin laughed at the comment. “I mean, it worked, didn’t it?”

Jeno rolled his eyes jokingly in response. “Whatever.” 

“I guess that I have to answer your question now, right?” Jeno said.

Jaemin’s smile shrunk and he nervously gnawed on his bottom lip, waiting for what Jeno was going to say next.

“You asked me if I liked you, correct?” Jeno asked.

Jaemin nodded, not trusting his voice.

“Well, my answer is no.”

Jeno couldn’t see what Jaemin was thinking, but he could see how his face dropped and his shoulders sagged at his response.

“I don’t think that what I feel for you can simply be described as ‘liking’ you,” Jeno explained. Jaemin’s head shot up at his words, eyes as wide as a quaffle. 

“I’ve liked you for the past two years, and I figured that the only way to prevent you from finding out was to pretend that I hated you. It was stupid, I know, but feelings are complicated and I didn’t want to be ridiculed for liking you after holding a shitty grudge against you for a year.” Jeno refused to meet Jaemin’s eyes.

“So no, Na Jaemin, I don’t just  _ like  _ you, I really, really,  _ really  _ like you very, very much.”

Jeno was staring at the ground, his Quidditch boots suddenly a lot more interesting than they were 2 minutes ago. Jaemin reached out, lightly tilting Jeno’s head up, pointer finger hooked under his chin.

“Jeno, look at me.”

Normally, Jeno would not have been persuaded to look, but Jaemin’s voice was so soft that Jeno couldn’t help himself.

“Lee Jeno, I like you too. Now, I haven’t liked you nearly as long as you’ve liked me, but I can say with full confidence that I can prove to you that I like you every bit as much as you like me.”

It was now Jeno’s turn to have wide eyes, and he was sure that he looked like a fish with his mouth gaping like it was.

“So, Lee Jeno, I’m going to ask you one more question.” Jeno looked at Jaemin, stunned.

“Will you go on a date with me?” he asked, sending Jeno spiralling even further into the euphoria that he was feeling.

“Of course, I would love to go on a date with you,” Jeno said, breathless as if he had just run a marathon.

Jaemin laughed in joy. If Jeno thought that Jaemin’s smile could rival the sun before, it was nothing compared to now, and Jeno was elated that he was the reason behind it.

“Okay, I lied. I have one more question,” Jaemin said, holding up his pointer finger. He took a step closer to Jeno, making his mind go fuzzy and incapable of processing anything around him other than  _ Jaemin, Jaemin, Jaemin. _

“Go for it,” he mumbled. He was definitely going to beat himself up over that later.

Jaemin smiled at his answer. “Can I kiss you?” he asked.

“Of course, I thought you’d never ask,” Jeno breathed.

“Consent is important,” Jaemin mumbled, cupping Jeno’s cheek with his hand.

With one final breath, Jaemin closed the distance between them, their mouths moulding perfectly. It was a simple kiss, tentative and close-lipped, but that didn’t stop the butterflies in Jeno’s stomach from turning into a zoo. The euphoria that Jeno had been feeling earlier increased by a tenfold, and he moved his hand to Jaemin’s back, pulling him closer. Jaemin brought his other hand up to fully cup Jeno’s face and Jeno matched his actions by completely encircling his waist. The warmth in his body spread from his stomach to the top of his head to the tip of his toes, making him feel like he was flying without a broom.

Jaemin pulled away first, desperate for air. Jaemin still had his hands placed on Jeno’s cheeks, and he gently stroked the smooth skin as they leaned their foreheads against each other. Jeno looked into Jaemin’s eyes. They were sparkling despite the lack of light and Jeno couldn’t help but smile too. It wasn’t his first kiss, nor was it Jaemin’s, but it was certainly going to be one that they would both remember for the rest of their lives.

Their second kiss was just as magical, only this time it was Jeno who initiated it. Jaemin’s eyes and lips were just too enticing for him to resist, so he threw caution to the wind and went for it. This kiss wasn’t as tame, a bit more heated with the desire that the two had built up over time. Jaemin nibbled on Jeno’s bottom lip, buzzed by the sound he let out. He moved his hands from Jeno’s cheeks to thread his fingers through his hair that was still beautifully windswept by wind from their game. He figured that it was too early for tongue so he kept it in his mouth, but anyone could tell that it was heated and passionate none the less. Hopefully, Jaemin would have many more opportunities in the future to kiss Jeno. When they broke away the second time, Jeno finished the kiss with a light peck on Jaemin’s lips, and then his nose.

They both giggled as they rested their foreheads together, admiring how each other looked. Lips are swollen from kissing, eyes half-lidded from the intensity of the moment and dishevelled hair from Jaemin who couldn’t keep his hands to himself. Jeno smiled brightly before pulling his head away and looking at Jaemin’s full face.

“So, what are we doing for that date?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey y'all, so as I expected, this will be the last chapter of my story :( but dw, I'll be publishing another story very soon, so please look forward to it !
> 
> this is one of the only stories that I've ever fully completed lmao
> 
> My next story will be a nomin story as well, and it will be called "That Boy Was the Mistake that he Would Make a Million Times" so please keep an eye out for it :) 
> 
> I really enjoyed writing this story, and I hope that you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I did during the writing process. kudos and comments keep me going so I really appreciate all of them :)
> 
> i lob ateez now guys, there will be some mentions of some of their members in my next story, even if only brief, but they'll be there so !!!
> 
> anyway, stan nct and have a good day :)

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! follow/check out my stories on wattpad @briangel_/hyunshine


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